Relocating to Lowestoft

[RosieO80]

Hi my DH has to relocate to Lowestoft for his job and we are based in Sheffield. We know almost nothing about Suffolk or Norfolk! The houses on London Rd in Lowestoft look amazing but are the schools any good? Can anyone give any advice please on where we should consider buying a house? We have three children so need good schools but hopefully somewhere not too far from the seafront in Lowestoft so DH's commute won't be too bad. Thanks!

Suffolk county council runs a catchment area system and the roads are listed on their web site and you can see which secondary would be the catchment one. That’s a start.

You could consider Beccles or Bungay too but that would be a huge change from Sheffield. I’m sure others will know the schools but the Government has just updated their progress tables and you can see which schools are doing well on that. Look at Ofsted too. Some schools have a history of RI.

Some parts of Lowestoft are rough and it's not somewhere I would choose to live. We are about 25 miles out of Lowestoft!

Bungay and Beccles and the villages surrounding are nice and are not far from Lowestoft. Don't go anywhere towards Yarmouth as that is worse than Lowestoft.

If you do want Lowestoft though, I would suggest you go and have a look around. Some parts are ok but as with Yarmouth, they make the sea front look presentable but if you go just a few streets in, it's pretty rough and deprived

A good few years ago now but the schools were very mixed. St Mary’s is Catholic but was an excellent school on top of the cliffs. Very inclusive but supported high achievement well. No catchment.
Oulton Broad was nice too. Good, modern school serving nice catchment.
Somerleyton might not still exist. We looked at it as head was brilliant, it was a tiny village school with two classes and lots of interesting things going on but decided against as we weren’t part of the established village friendships.
St Margaret’s served a much poorer catchment overall but was very, very good at ensuring parental support running parenting classes, reading clubs, attached health visitor, playgroup etc.
If not in Lowestoftbitself, consider Southwold or Beccles.

I wouldn't live in lowestoft itself. It's quite deprived and has lots of crime and social issues. If your husband can commute then there are lots of lovely places around it.

Beccles is nice, on the river and has an outdoor swimming pool.

Echo the above, it's deprived and rough in most places. Avoiding thst means being further out. I certainly wouldn't live around the town/seafront again. I would strongly suggest going and spending some time there away from the tourist bit before making any decisions.

Echoing the dont live in Lowestoft without visiting sentiments, though they're are nice parts of it. If he's going to work near the seafront, the train station is really close. That would make the commute easier, since traffic in Lowestoft can be really bad especially in summer. That opens up a lot of new places you could live in. Beccles is on the train line and is small but OK.

There are worse places to be than Lowestoft! Don't know anything about the schools but it has a High St with all the usual names, a local theatre, a small cinema, train station, nice leisure centre and a roller skating rink! The beach is nice too. It's a fairly small town and the traffic can be a pain when they raise the bridge. Think Beccles would be very small town coming from Sheffield. Lowestoft has a couple of nice gastropubs and there are all of the lovely villages/towns to visit nearby, like the Broads where you can hire boats or do nice walks. It's cheaper to buy/rent a house there than in other areas nearby.

Lowestoft is very close to the lovely (but very expensive) Southwold (London-on-sea) if you're looking for a bit more sophistication and prices to match! The big boarding school, St Felix, has holiday clubs that I think are open to those not at the school.

All in all, although it's gritty, it's not a bad place to raise a family and there's loads to do in Lowestoft and nearby.

Lowestoft has lots of lovely areas and also like anywhere (including bungay and beccles) it has some not so nice areas too. Some areas of lowestoft I'd recommend (of the top of my head) are (north lowestoft) - gunton (beautiful natural beach, woodland ect) top of London road south (near Pakefield is lovely too) corton, corton road, gunton cliff, bordering lowestoft you also have Olton broad (which is beautiful) and carlton Carvile. Echo above re visiting and looking around yourself. Alot of investment is going into lowestoft at the moment, including building a 3rd crossing to ease trafic. There is a lovely retail park and also a new one being built south of lowestoft.

(Sorry pressed enter too soon!) Theres plenty of things to do... gorgeous walks, commercial and picturesque natural beaches, lovely swimming pools and fitness centres, large well maintained parks, play centres for little ones if the weather is bad. There's a train station and a fantastic bus service. Lots of lovely indepentand cafes and resurants. Its a lovely family friendly town, with lots going on.

I’m sorry - I did mention secondary and you’ve posted in primary. However you will need to consider secondary at some stage so living in catchment for the best secondary would be important to me.

We have had friends living in this area for decades and we know it quite well. I would swerve Lowestoft because there are nicer places. So many villages have pubs and restaurants you don’t need Lowestoft to get that. Certainly Beccles is much better.

I'm a young 64...thinking ifmiving to lowestoft..oulten broad.. are there shops and things to do.. I'm worried it will be boring